I am sick and tired of people complaining about the year 2020 being an awful, terrible, horrible, and undeniably no-good, bad year! It was nothing more or less than a year like any other.
But the Pandemic!!
The first word (or two) out of anyone’s mouth is, “Pandemic! The pandemic made this a horrible year!” Well, yes, there is a pandemic, and it is bad for some who are at higher risk or those who don’t follow good protocols, but is it really bad? It is a disease like any other. It strikes down the vulnerable and is easily spread (hence the designation as a pandemic). If you look closely at the data you will see that this disease has a fatality rate of approximately 2.17% (Source: Home – Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center (jhu.edu) Total world-wide confirmed cases 110,439,431 with total world-wide deaths of 2,444,329). In the United States, the fatality rate is approximately 1.7% (27,898,118 total confirmed cases with 493,176 deaths).
The testing rate for the United States shows a total of 339,981,823 tests administered with 27,674,548 positive cases (Source: Total COVID-19 tests conducted vs. Confirmed cases, Jan 1, 2021 (ourworldindata.org)) This is a positive test rate of approximately 8.14%. This tells me that there is a 92% chance of having a negative test, and if I am positive, I have a 98% chance of surviving.
To listen to the media sound off, people will die if they walk out of their door! The media and the politicians are the ones fomenting fear!! You should not fear — never fear. You should take appropriate action to your circumstances and go about living your life. What are the appropriate actions?
- Wash your hands — often — with soap!! Soap is better than hand sanitizer. Save hand sanitizer for those times you cannot get to soap and water!
- Wear masks! This is not hard. This is not a violation of your civil rights, but simple common courtesy and good manners for those around you. In many places, the state is mandating that businesses require masks or be forced to close. Don’t make life harder for the local businesses than it already is. These are your neighbors. It’s also a case of “their house – their rules!” Don’t argue with them
- Don’t touch your face! This is the point of washing your hands and wearing a mask. Viruses (like the common cold and the flu) are transmitted by you touching a contaminated surface or being coughed or sneezed on, and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. That’s it! Wash your hands! and don’t touch your face!! I saw a video made by an emergency room doctor from New York City that emphasized this. He also stated that the mask is there to remind you not to touch your face.
- Take the vaccine when it becomes available for you, but don’t worry if it is not available for a while. Wait your turn, you will get vaccinated.
There’s a pandemic. That’s not fearful! What is fearful is the havoc wreaked on businesses by politicians. These politicians are more interested in their own power than in helping people. This is the true reason for fear, not the pandemic.
Trump Bad! Orange Man Bad!
Well, I don’t like getting into politics, but when the only thing politicians say is “Orange man bad!” Well, I question their sanity. Also the media’s. That’s all you hear from the mainstream media. This is the left’s crisis of leadership. Was Trump the greatest President ever? No. Was he a braggart? Absolutely! I’d never have him over for a beer. But he did many things with which I agree. These include:
- Moving the Embassy to Jerusalem. This effectively took Jerusalem off the table in negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbors. There are now four new agreements between Israel and the UAE, Morocco, Sudan, and Bahrain. This will enhance regional stability.
- Building a powerful economy. By removing some of the more onorous government regulations and reducing taxes, businesses were able to grow. This increases revenue for the government and the shareholders. Because businesses were able to grow, unemployment went down and the stock market hit record highs.
- Reducing climate emissions without being in the Paris Climate Accords. Americans will do the right thing without being hit with a stick.
- Brought manufacturing jobs back to the United States. This was particularly important once everyone saw how China confiscated N95 masks made by 3M in their factory in China for the United States’ market.
- Unemployment, especially Black and other minority groups unemployment, at the lowest levels ever.
- Increase spending by NATO allies on their own defense.
News flash! The media is biased! Gone are the days when reporters made an effort to tell both sides of the story. Now, they don’t even check to see if the news they are putting out is factually accurate so long as it furthers the narrative they support.
So how can you get the real story? I look at multiple sources and recognize that each has its own bias. I also look at foreign sources. They are also biased, but differently than U.S. media.
The media’s bias makes every one of us prone to confirmation bias, or the tendency to only look at those sources that agree with your leanings. You need to be aware of this in yourself. It’s always easy to see in others.
Now that the administration has changed, the media is going to go back to sleep and refuse to question anything it does. Why? Because it supports the same positions they do. All the mainstream media has to do is silence those upstart sites and bloggers who dare to criticize the Democrat administration and any of its programs or positions. These are beyond questioning.
By the way, the Trump administration provided the best economy the United States has had for 50 years. The Black and Hispanic unemployment rates were the lowest they’ve ever been. The country was booming until everything had to shut down for COVID-19, but the economy was coming out of this slump in the fall, and was poised for a record comeback. I’m sorry not to see it.
The United States is a Racist Country
This is the rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter and other social justice warriors. This is the race crisis in America! If the 
U.S. is so racist, why are so many people from Africa and Central and South America eager to come here? They don’t want to be treated badly. That’s why they are leaving their homogenous countries where they were the same ethnic/racial group as everyone else. They are coming to the United States because it is not a racist country, it is a place where everyone can get ahead if they work hard.
Now the pandemic has caused state and local politicians to channel their inner dictator and shut down small businesses with exceptions for themselves and their cronies, but most people are ready to get back to work. I just worry about the influx of illegal aliens who will be allowed to enter the country with no testing for COVID or any other communicable disease.
Racist countries don’t attract illegal aliens. Countries with good economies and good people do.
Erasing History
The change of administration has emboldened Marxists such as Black Lives Matter to work on erasing the history of anything or anyone they do not like. This is the police brutality crisis. Since BLM and Antifa are a bunch of spoiled brats, this is pretty much everything — United States history, statues of the Founding Fathers, historic military leaders, broccoli (OK, I probably made that one up).
Erasing history from the textbooks like Stalin and Lenin did in the USSR, or changing the view of groups of people such as the Nazis did in Germany, doesn’t actually change the facts that they happened. They will just refuse to teach this in the schools which are not teaching anything except racism (white and Asian people bad, black and brown people good). And conveniently omitting facts that don’t fit their narrative such as the slavery that still exists in Africa today. They are basing policy decisions on who receives benefits on their race is the basic definition of racism. In my experience, there are only two types of people – folks and assholes, and you usually find the assholes on the freeway! Most of the people I meet are just folks working to raise their families and get on in their lives, just like everyone else.
Parents have an opportunity since the teachers are refusing to go back to school to teach, to inculcate American values of independence, critical thinking, and neighborliness. There are materials available to help them, and they can correct the incorrect information their children are receiving at school. I did this for my children years ago.
Climate Change
The climate crisis is a perenial favorite. When I was in junior high (I’m a pre-middle school adult), they were going on about the dangers of nuclear winter. When I got to college, it was global warming. Acid rain was denuding our forests and the world would end before the year 2000. This was a crisis of epic proportions and something must be done now before humanity ceases to exist. Well, that was obviously wrong. 
Since they cannot decide whether or not the world is getting warmer or colder, they changed the danger to simply climate change. The climate changes every day, it’s cool in the morning and warmer around midday and gets cooler after dusk. Everything now is going to lead to the polar ice caps melting, glaciers eroding, and ocean levels rising. I think that the ice melt in some places is countered by the increase in the ice sheet in others. There’s too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. It seems to me that the best way to counter too much CO2 is to plant a tree or two or three. They just eat CO2 up and replace it with the oxygen animal life needs to live.
Every measure is greeted with a proposal that will hamper business in the United States while permitting the major polluters such as China and Brazil. The Paris Climate Accord is something the nations of the world sign on to with no actual intention of following. I’m not for polluting anything, but the United States has exceeded the requirements of the Paris Climate Accord without being a part of it.
In Chaos There Is Opportunity
Sun-Tzu stated that “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” The year 2020 provided us all with many opportunities. It exposed the hypocrisy of the left in applying rules that they themselves do not follow. It exposed the plain mean-spiritedness of people who are empathetic for the supposed victims of brutality and rejoice over the misfortune of someone they disagree with. So what are the opportunities?
- Connecting with our children and ensuring our values are passed on.
- Volunteering in your community to make it a better place.
- Paying attention to the media, and commenting on it, both locally and nationally. Call out errors and injustices when you see them.
- Get involved in local politics. Everyone wants good schools, good roads, and low taxes. It sets a good example for your children. As far as political parties go, I have never voted a straight ticket in my life. Locally, everyone knows everyone, and they vote for the people they like and trust. This is why politicians go door-to-door – people are more likely to vote for someone whose hand they’ve shaken.
The left is all about their crises – the pandemic, climate change, racism, and Trump. It’s all nonsense! Don’t fall prey to fear. Look at the issues before you and do what you can. Everything will be alright.